


The Lost Hero

by distendedmarimo



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Avatar (TV) Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Coming of Age, Crossover, F/F, F/M, M/M, My Hero Academia/ Avatar: The Last Airbender crossover, trigger warning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2019-12-26 22:52:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18291848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distendedmarimo/pseuds/distendedmarimo
Summary: 16 years have passed since the avatar All Might sacrificed himself to save the human and spirit world. But the war, once dormant, rages once again in his absence. On her quest to find the lost avatar, Ochako meets Izuku. He's a non-bender with dreams of ending the war and he's got a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. Together they must assemble a team and maybe, they can save the world.Meanwhile, two rogues meet. Eijirou, of The Red Mountain Isles, has lived in relative peace on his own until a certain outlaw, cast out by the fire nation, washes ashore. Brash, powerful, and fit to explode, Bakugo is a shunned noble. Eijirou struggles to protect the villagers from the growing threat of the fire nation only to find a soft spot for the jagged edged Katsuki.An avatar AU with the characters of My Hero Academia, the best of both with plenty of twists.





	1. Who Will Save The World?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time posting on AO3! I've been thinking about how fun it would be if these two worlds could converge and I felt a lot of overlap in the characters of each series. I wanted to explore this while also revealing more nuance to both the MHA characters and the world of Avatar.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> -Marimo

            Ochako gathered the young water tribe kids into the tent and began her tale: “They say that long ago the four nations lived together in harmony—”

            “But everything changed,” chanted the children in unison, “When the fire nation attacked!”

            “Attacked!” shouted a young boy, whose nose seemed to be perpetually runny. “And-And-And I’m gonna change the world!”

            Ocahako sighed, “We’re not to that part quite ye-”

            “Yeah, _Touno_! Sit down, let the weird forehead lady tell the story!” a young girl loudly whispered.

            Ochako slapped herself in the face in her rush to cover the blue arrow on her forehead. “’Weird-weird forehead’, huh?”

            Izuku whipped the tent flap aside to enter. “Now, now. Touno and Amara please be good for the Air Nomad. She travelled all this way to teach you about the Ava-”

            “Everyone knows the Avatar is ded! D-E-D! Ded,” cried Touno.

            “Actually, the avatar is reincarnated whenever they-”

            “Air lady! What’s a ‘rencaribounative’?” asked Amara.

            “Now, now everyone let’s sit down and _listen_ to Miss Ochako-”

            “Deku! You always say ‘now, now’ this ‘now, now’ that,” interjected another student. And that was it. As the conversation fell into chaos they knew they would not be getting the kids back.

            “Sorry about them. They’re just so excited to see someone like you- er- not from the southern water tribe,” Izuku finished lamely.

            “Oh, no I understand!” Ochako assured him. “Believe me, I get it all the time, wherever we travel.”

            “Oh! Sorry!”

            “Hmm? What for?” Ochako tilted her head to the side.

            Izuku blushed, “I- I don’t really… know?”

            Ochako laughed, “Well I forgive you?”

 

 

            They herded the children out of the tent for playtime and lunch then the two headed toward the edge of the ice for a break.

            “This is where I go to um have some quiet after class away from the kids.”

            “I see. It definitely is peaceful out here. Is it hard being a teacher when you’re so young yourself?”

            “No, not at all. I mean I’m already 15.” ‘As of a few weeks ago,’ He didn’t say…

            “Oh, I’m sorry I thought you were younger but I’m only 4 years older.”

            “Of course! Right! Right. Yeah I’m- I’m still growing.” _Oh no she’s totally a mature adult, I’m so stupid, stupid, stupid…_ He blushed. “My dad was supposedly really tall so…”

            Ochako gracefully filled the pause. “Thank you for helping me speak with the children, Izuku, and for showing me around the village.”

            “Of course!” his voice cracked. He cleared his throat while damning puberty and tried again, “The kids actually listen to you much better than they do me, believe it or not.”

            Ochako looked a mix of shock and pity, “Really?”

            Izuku laughed nervously and wished he’d kept his mouth shut.

            “Are you okay? You’re getting, um, sweaty?”

            “YES! I’m fine! Umm would you mind if I ask you some questions about you? I mean your bending! Sorry, I’ve never met an airbender before and I’m a bit of a bending nerd. I’ve seen water bending and even firebending before but never air. Oh I’m not a bender by the way. I’m just average…”

            “… What uh was the question again?”

            “Oh dear yes um yeah I have it right here in my notebook-” In a fit of absurd nerves, Izuku managed to fumble the book right into the freezing water. And down it sunk.

            Before Izuku could even cry out, Ochako dived right in after the notebook. In just seconds she burst back through the water’s surface and into the air where she floated down softly.

            “Wow! Um- that was so cool- Are you okay? I mean of course you’re okay! Are you uh wet? I mean not like _wet_ \- AH! Why did I say that?!”

            Izuku looked on the verge of bowing to the ground for forgiveness so Ochako decided to change topics. “Hey Izuku, I noticed when I was flying in but isn’t there a ship of some kind? Near the outskirts of the village?”

            Izuku sobered. “You mean the fire nation ship? No one’s allowed near it. It’s bad omen.”

            “Oh I see.” She bit her lip but pushed forward. “Would you mind telling me what happened there? Really anything you know.”

            Izuku hesitated, “well, no one really wants to talk about it. A lot. A lot of people died. Like um Touno’s dad, Amara’s big sister, the village chief, my mom…”

            “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

            “I feel like. I feel like you’re not here just to teach children of the world about the avatar.” His eyes shined with an unexpected piercing green sincerity. They bore right through her with a burning curiosity.

            “It’s-” she hesitated, could she trust this boy? “It’s not a lie. My people are trying to educate the world of the avatar. But we are also searching.”

            “For what?”

            “For who, more like.”

            “But All Might is dead. He’s been dead for 16 years.” Izuku said, “right?”

            “Probably. Maybe. We believe… we believe that he might still be…”

            “Really?” Izuku took out his soaked notebook and started writing.

            “Izuku! Stop, it’s a secret!”

            “But I thought you wanted to educate people?”

            “We do, I do. But this information is dangerous if… The fire nation ever found out.”

            “I promise,” Izuku tore out the page and handed it to her. He stared into her eyes with that mad intensity again, “I want, I always wanted to be the- the avatar.”

            “But you-”

            “Right I’m not a bender at all. I can hardly bend a branch to be honest. But I always dreamed that I could… save- do something to help people.”

            Izuku opened his notebook up to a page of what looked like schematics. “Is this, a fire nation war ship?”

            “The very one you flew over on the way here.”

            “But how did you get all this information?”

            “I,” he scratched the back of his head, “I may have gone inside. A few times.”

            “It wasn’t filled with traps?”

            “Oh yeah. It is. I just um don’t trigger them.”

            “It’s that easy huh? Outwitting the fire nation?”

            “Hahaha.”

            “Were you born in the water tribe?” Izuku balked at the question. “Sorry, I just noticed your eyes. They’re actually green.”

            “Umm, no, my mother and I came here when I was little. She grew up here but I was born in the earth kingdom.”

            “Oh so you’re, mixed. Your mother is water tribe and your father is-”

            “I don’t actually know for sure but yeah, judging by my eyes: earth kingdom.”

 

 

            A horn blared through the cold distance. Izuku jumped to attention. “What does that horn mean? Izuku?”

            “We need to run. Back to the village.” From the direction of the village grew a red glow. Ash fell from the sky like tainted snow.


	2. Where Is She?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A look back in time, when things were simple, until they weren't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter definitely includes semi graphic violence as well as **Trigger Warning** child abuse, physical and emotional. It's sort of par for the course for Shouto and Zuko, unfortunately.

_13 years after the disappearance of All Might_

 

            Shouto was 12 at the time, Katsuki 15 at the most. Both were outcasts in a sense. One the mutated offspring of a peace treaty with the Northern Water Tribe gone awry, the other a mistress’ son, barely legitimate, and both embarrassments of the royal court.

            Murmurs, footsteps, fiery chambers: not exactly a fun playground for kids. Outside in the garden, the turtle ducklings in the pond played. He’d saved some rice from breakfast in his sleeve. “Quack, quack,” he whispered with a smile. The turtle ducklings paddled straight toward the boy crouched before the pond. “I got you all a snack.” Shouto took the small handful of cooked rice and sprinkled it on the water’s surface.

            “Tch. Hey freak-on-ice, hanging with your _only_ friends?”

            Shouto gave a mildly confused look, “That’s a strange insult seeing as you don’t have any friends. At all.”

            “Shut up!” Katsuki’s fists sparked with heat and light. “Lets go, you and me, right now. Agni kai, you little shit!”

            Shouto rolled his eyes. Katsuki was constantly challenging people to agni kai: castle guards, servants, sometimes small animals that annoyed him. Shouto wasn't sure exactly why but knew it had something to do with 'honor' or something.

            “Oh wait,” Katsuki grew an evil grin, “You can’t even fire bend. It would be less of an agni kai and more of a barbeque.”

            “This is why you have no friends.” Shouto turned back to the pond.

            A servant entered the garden “Shouto, your father will see you. Now.”

            Shouto visibly flinched, long sleeves falling into the pond water.

            “Fuck. Have fun with that, brat.” That man made Katsuki himself grateful that his father was dead.

           

 

            The room was set in an amber twilight from the surrounding flames. Shouto stood still and silent in the oppressive heat. Enji hit him again, backhanded. “If you refuse to use your fire. You will die today.” Enji said, voice smooth with venom. “You need to give it everything Shouto. Enough frivolities. You will fight for your honor.”

            Another slap reverberated off the walls.

 

            Shouto had missed lunch. Not that it was Katsuki’s problem or anything. After scaring off the turtle ducks Bakugo practiced assault forms in the garden. He inhaled the smell of burned plants: Shouto would be pissed when he got back. The sun, the sweat on his skin, the pull of muscle, it was the only thing that made him feel powerful.

            A group of young nobles passed by the garden over the terrace. “Why do they even let him stay in the castle?” Asked one.

            “I don’t care who his father is, he’s an embarrassment.”

            “I swear he’s got rabies. I mean he’s constantly foaming at the mouth.”

            “A _bastard_ could never be Fire Lord. Let's be honest-,” they laughed.

            Katsuki glared, “Uh-oh the thing heard us.” They broke out into cackles.

            Katsuki detonated a blast into the air, “Keep talking! I’ll fucking kill you!” The nobles shuffled back inside in a hurry.

            _Someday, I’m gonna run this fucking place, then they’ll be sorry._

“Katsuki,” called a servant at the edge of the garden. He ignored him.

            “Katsuki. You are being summoned.”

            “Fuck off.”

            “By the Fire Lord.” This turned his head. The fire left his palms. This was his chance: he could finally be recognized. He could be more than just a bastard. Katsuki knew he could fight; he was ready to fight. Katsuki rushed inside to the corridors that connected to the Fire Lord’s chambers. It was more than he’d hoped for: the stage set before him was for agni kai. Finally, he’d dreamed of this moment his entire life. Shouto had better be there to watch him rise to the top. Who knows, maybe he'd even help the kid out someday.

            It was pretty much impossible to make out the features of the Fire Lord, what with shadows and shit but Katsuki could see his towering silhouette and feel his gaze. Nobles with disdainful looks filled the room and Katsuki searched for his opponent but all he saw were the same assholes who had been spitting on him his entire life. But not today. Today, they’d see. Servants surrounded him to strip him down for the fight. They slid the bangles up his biceps. When one servant approached him with a comb, Katsuki hit his limit, "Get the fuck away from me before I kick your ass too.” The servant retreated, hands up.

            Admirals, Generals, Commanders filed in and it only fed the fire in Katsuki’s gut. Then Ice Freak’s dad came in and then Shouto. The little punk’s sleeves were still wet and his face was dark and unreadable. Slowly, Shouto took off his robes to leave just his pants and servants had already tied up his hair. _Fuck._

            The bangles would not even stay up his arms. Instead they hung loosely around his wrists like shackles. Enji stood in the center point of the dueling platform. “For the Fire Lord’s pleasure: Agni Kai.”

            For a moment the two just stood staring at each other from across the stage. What kind of father lets his son, _a child_ , be sacrificed in an agni kai. Katsuki hesitated. This was the only way, wasn’t it? The ridicule, the pain could stop and he would finally be recognized as the hero he was meant to be and all he had to do was defeat a child: Shouto, the only other person in the castle who would actually talk to him. That was the price. His anger centered him and Katsuki raged forward with a blast of heat.

 

            When he saw Katsuki from across the stage Shouto couldn’t hold back his tears. “Please. Father. I won’t fight.” Shouto cried. “I’ll do anything.”

            Enji shook his head in disgust. “You disgrace our whole family. Fight or die, Shouto.” The match began.

            Katsuki went straight down the middle across the stage and all Shouto could do was tremble. Shouto recognized the way he cupped his hands, building up pressure for a bomb of fire. He’d seen this stance before, this rage before, this violence before. The heat seared his chest; fire consumes everything it touches. Shouto fell to the ground. The world went dark as coal. Applause faded to silence.

 

            “Get up!” Enji roared. “Shouto, get up!” The boy was still and crumpled on the floor. Katsuki backed off and stared at his shaking hands. The applause was deafening.

            Enji ran to Shouto, “Get up, Get up.” He picked him up into his arms, his head lolled to one side. “Get up boy,” He pounded on his chest, “Don’t you want to see your mother again? Huh? If you die you’ll never know where she is.”

            A groan escaped his lips. Shouto lifted his head, his face covered in soot and tears. He mumbled, Enji couldn’t hear. He brought his ear closer, “Where is she?”

            “Win. And I’ll tell you.” Shouto’s eyes glazed over. He stood.

            The audience’s clapping stuttered and was replaced with murmurs.

            “The agni kai will continue.” Shouto returned to his place on the stage. He held the bangles in each fist and they began to grow. From his dripping sleeves, his tears, the sweat on Katsuki’s brow, even the air around him Shouto felt a thirst he could sate. The bangles became encased in ice, creating circular blades. Shouto darted forward. Katsuki raised his arms to defend, to dissolve the ice, something, when his legs were swept out from under him. The next hit came from behind and tore up his back. Katsuki tried to back up, charge forward, but his right leg failed him. He stumbled and fell to all fours.

            “Where is she,” Shouto said. “I beat him. Where is she? Where is she!”

            Enji gave no answer, only, “Finish it.”

            Katsuki pushed himself back up. While Shouto was distracted, he charged forward, grabbed one side of Shouto’s face and let it burn. Shit, the smell of burning flesh. How could he do that? How could he call himself a hero? Katsuki jumped back as if he was the one who had been burned. “No, No! I’m sorry. Fuck Shouto, no. ”

            The boy just stood there. The bangles clattered to the floor, bone dry. The water gathered at the side of his face, over his left eye, in a blue glow. He took the most fundamental fire bending stance. He said it once, “Shield, Katsuki,” and let loose a firestorm.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. The next chapter will return to Ochako and Izuku.
> 
> Please feel free to leave any suggestions you have for characters or pairings you'd like to include. I've only decided on the one's I've tagged above.


	3. The Taste of Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience as I wrestle the real world. Let me know if this chapter surprises you.

            Izuku’s head rang with the most violent déjà vu. It couldn’t happen again: caved in ingloos, tents on fire, the ground a pool of grey slush, all starting with a black ship. The way the fire nation vessel, crude metal, yet sharp as a knife, had fractured the summer ice all those years ago still cut him to the bone. The villagers had not even finished rebuilding the village from the last fire nation invasion and now would it return to the ash of 4 years ago? Izuku had grown, years had passed and yet he shook just the same. Was he the same scared child? The one who hid behind his mother as their tent was ripped apart

 

_It was a normal day. Mother had just returned with a few fish for dinner and they were lighting a fire when the horns blared across the village._

            “ _Izuku, get in the tent,” she said in a strangled voice._

_“But Mom!”_

_“Put out the fire and stay in the tent.”_

_Izuku pulled out a boomerang of his own making, “I can fight! Plea-”_

_“Izuku,” she boomed, then controlled her voice, “You can’t fight, you can’t bend. You know this. Promise me.”_

_He’d never seen his mother so grave. It was this that scared him first. Her eyes were impossibly wide and fierce._

_“I promise mom.”_

            It had hardly been a battle; the villagers had been pathetically outnumbered. Together, the water benders beached the first ship but more kept coming. Even in their element the water benders fell to the massive firepower of the fire nation. They had been pushed further and further until the flames reached the village.

_Izuku could see her mother running toward him through a crack in the tent flaps. He poked his head out. “Mom! You’re back— is it over? Did we beat them?”_

_Izuku then noticed the glow of destruction in the distance and the unnaturally blackened sky. “Get back in the tent!” Izuku did as he was told. Inko ran in after him. She whispered urgently, “Please Izuku, listen carefully. Don’t be a hero, let me take care of it.” The smoke grew denser inside the tent, any second now they would find them._

_“Mom, please I can fight! I need to help!”_

_“Quiet! They’re here.” The tent distended and finally ripped. Inko was ready: she struck one soldier with a torrent of water, then another. From behind them, Izuku heard heavy footsteps._

_He charged the soldier with all his strength and the mightiest roar he could muster but the legs were completely unyielding. “Izuku no-” She turned to repel the third soldier. The blast came from behind creating a halo of red around his mother’s head. The look of anguish was the last he would see of his mother._

 

            “Izuku! Wait!” Under the folds of her air nomad garb, Ochako pulled out a whistle.

            His eyes were unfocused, “We need to save her- them!”

            “We need a plan Izuku. We need information.” She blew on the whistle but no sound came out, just a hiss of air. A rumbling roar came out from the nearby glacier.       “What about the kids?”

            “Get on! We need to get a lay of the land.” The sky darkened with the silhouette of a flying bison.

            “Wow! Wow! What? Wow?!” Izuku scrambled up the furry front leg of the bison.

            “Appa! Come on we’ve got to get back to the village,” Ochako somersaulted through the air to the top of Appa’s head. “Izuku, hurry up.” Izuku struggled on the base of the front paw until Appa lifted his massive paw up. Izuku slid down his raised leg and fell onto the giant bison saddle on his back.

            “Yip Yip!” They took off into the air. The source of the smoke was not the village but the fire nation ship. There had been no damage to the village— yet.

            From the sky they could see only one ship, not the platoon of vessels like all those years ago. The smoke and soot emitted from the ship powdered the ground around the fissure and floated around the ship, partially obscuring it. Normally, tribe warriors would be the first to confront fire nation invaders but, with the village reduced to children and the elderly, Izuku was the village’s only defense. Izuku fought against the suffocating weight in his gut, like he’d swallowed some dense metal ore once dormant within him but now beginning to rust and rot. His sinewy muscles pulled taut, Izuku gritted his teeth and stared at Ochako’s back. She gave him a tentative hope.

            They aimed their descent between the ice fissure from the fire nation ship and the village and landed just as the ship dropped its ramp.

            “Izuku. I need you to listen to me,” his heart stuttered, “Let me talk to them first. No one needs to get hurt.” Ochako launched herself off of Appa and waited for Izuku to get down. “Thanks buddy! Now go hide until I give the signal okay?”

            “Do you really think they’ll leave without a fight?”

            Ochako stopped and turned to face Izuku, her eyes brimmed with inextinguishable bravery. “This world is full of surprises.” Izuku burned red with a mix of shame and pride. This girl was magnetic.

            Shadows emerged from the smoke followed by their owners. They didn’t walk in regimented formation, there were no flaming fists, and in fact, upon closer inspection, they weren’t even in uniform. There was a tall man in frayed dark clothes his face was mottled with scars from burns and rough stiches. He had a sadistic smirk and a frightening charisma about him. His eyes were a bright blue, cold as ice. Behind him was a hulking aggressive mass of muscle carrying someone in the heavy coat, mittens, and boots of the southern water tribe and a bag over her head. She struggled fruitlessly against the muscled man’s iron grasp until he threw her over his shoulder and restrained her legs.

            Immediately Izuku ran. They’d taken a hostage? When? Who was it? Ochako held out her staff in his way. “Wait, I think I know them.” Hesitation gripped him and Izuku froze in place. She knew him?

            “Are they fire nation?”

            “No— Well kind of. It’s complicated. But if we’re careful, I don’t think they’ll hurt her.”

            “‘You don’t _think_?’ What does that mean!” Izuku wanted rush forward but what would he do next? He had no weapon, no bending.

            “Dabi?” Ochako said to the tattered man. “What are you doing here?”

            “Was just in the neighborhood, sweet cheeks.”

            Her brow remained low and tense while she stared him down silently.

            “Maybe I saw a sky bison headed south and thought I’d drop in and say ‘hi’.”

            _He’d followed her? How exactly did they know each other?_

            “Let the villager go. These people have nothing you want. No resources to take, no benders to recruit.”

            “Oh? Then why are you here, huh? Just _educating_ the masses?”

            “Please, Dabi. I’ll tell you whatever you need to know, just let the villager go first.”

            “How about you tell me _now_ and I won’t have Muscular here crush all her bones.”

            “Let go of her!” His feet seemed to move before his mind. It was a magnetic force.

            “Izuku, no!”

            “Can he even bend?” Muscular mused. Izuku charged at him despite his obvious lack of skill. “That looks like a no.” No later than Izuku reached the man did he become a hostage himself. He let the masked villager down and pulled off the bag.

            “Hey there!” She looked water tribe but Ochako had never seen her in the village before. “I’m Himiko, formerly northern water tribe.” She smiled too big and without looking away from Ochako she swiftly took out a knife and swiped it across Izuku’s right cheek.

            “Izuku!” Ochako pointed her staff offensively.

            The muscular guy took him into a chokehold before he could make a sound. “Watch where you point that thing.” She lowered her staff.

            Himiko looked like she was about to lick his bleeding cheek but then, “Oh wait, you’re not even a bender! I bet your blood tastes gross!” She cackled and wiped her knife on Izuku’s clothes. “Wanna know a secret?” she faux whispered, “Air bender blood is sweet, earth is savory, water is salty, and fire is spicy! I wonder what avatar blood tastes like, don’t you?”

            “Enough Himiko,” he sighed in annoyance and turned his attention back to Ochako.

            With faux enthusiasm he said, “Alright ‘Chako. Ready to talk?”


	4. The Ember Isles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> #meetcute but not really.

            _13 years after the disappearance of All Might_

 

            Eijirou stood up in his boat and held out his hands, palms down. The silt shivered and rose from the ocean floor and through the water, forming a wide circle of sand, and soon the fish were trapped. It was a net made of silt clouds. All he had to do was catch them as the fish tried to jump over the cloudy water. He would be eating well tonight.

            The falling sun reflected an intense burning pink on the ocean water. In the opposite direction was the isle he inhabited. A red mountain, fertile and rich with pink salt deposits, divided him from the port village to the east but Eijirou liked it that way. He didn’t have to hide his bending for fear of capture by fire nation spies or mercenaries. It wasn’t safe to be a bender these days so Eijirou tried not to take offense when the villagers avoided him or even seemed scared of him. He was proud to follow in his father’s footsteps. If he had been Crimson then Eijirou would be Red. With the fire nation to the southeast and his father’s disappearance, there was no one else to keep look out in case of a sudden attack.

            Eijirou pushed the sand below his boat to send him back to the little dock, grabbed his basket of fish and started a fire in the fire pit outside of his small home. He was in the middle of steaming some rice when he saw a sail silhouetted in the horizon from the southwest. The sails were strangely shaped: fire nation? It was is duty to lookout for fire nation activity. Eijirou smothered the fire with sand and ran out to the water. He swam and swam until there was no earth close enough to sense. The beauty of the ocean was that for a little while he could be just like everybody else. He felt small but not in a bad way. He was free, ordinary— then he drew closer to the ship.

            It was difficult to see over the waves but Eijirou caught two figures dumping something overboard. The ship looked civilian but the figures seemed to be dressed in military uniform. _The hell?_ The figures watched whatever they’d just dumped sink down before returning in the direction they’d come from. The way it had sunk was strange like the mass itself wanted to float but something denser was pulling it down. Rocks? Eijirou tested it and the mass resurfaced. He pulled it closer, it was a large oblong sack. Oh no.

            Panicked, he rushed to close the distance between him and the knot that kept the sack closed. His wet fingers slipped over the heavy cloth again and again until he finally sharpened a rock inside of the sack to make a hole, and ripped it apart.

            He was young, no older than Eijirou himself, and covered in terrible burns. _How awful_ , the fire nation was truly ruthless. And yet, he was still breathing faintly. With the young man draped over his back, Eijirou managed to pull them both back to shore.

            Eijirou laid him down in the sand and checked his breathing again. His breathe was weaker now. The burns were terrible as if he’d been whipped with fire from all directions. His face and chest were mostly unscathed but his arms had taken the worst of it. With out treatment, the young man would die. He had to be fire nation right? He wasn’t wearing a shirt, just some singed pants and fire nation boots. Why was he burned and thrown out to sea? Was he supposed to be killed? Was he trying to escape? Was he a victim of the fire nation too? What would Crimson Riot do?

            Eijirou gathered him in his arms and took him back to the house. He cleaned his wounds and spread medicinal herbs over them. The rice and fish were cold now but they were cooked. The young man shivered and flinched in his sleep. Bright snapping flames sparked him his palms but Eijirou immediately extinguished them with more medicine. Now all he could do was wait and see if he survived the night.

 

            When Katsuki awoke, it was in a cold sweat. He tried to look around but any attempts to move summoned a searing pain. It was some kind of peasant shack or something. The air smelled strange, sort of crisp and damp at the same time. He wasn’t in the palace. The last thing he could remember was Shouto. He had said something, right? _Shield_. Some fucking warning. He tried to sit up but the burns left him helpless on the floor. Katsuki cried out in pain or frustration. He’d been so close. So close and he fucking _blew_ it. Disgust brought tears, which brought more disgust.

            “Hey! You’re awake!”

            “Stay away from me!” He practically screamed. Katsuki tried to throw out some flames but nothing came.

            The man remained calm. “It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you. You’re badly hurt but I’m gonna take care of you, that alright?”

            “Who the hell are you? Where am I?” Katsuki spat threateningly but both knew he was in no shape to stand let alone attack.

            “You’re in my house. A fire nation sailboat dropped you and a bunch of rocks in a sack and threw you overboard. I brought you to shore. Look, you’re badly injured so try to calm down—”

            “Where is this place? Am I in the fire nation right now?”

            “Uhh it depends on who you ask. The fire nation and earth kingdom have been fighting over these isles for decades or more.”

            “And which side are you on?”

            “I’m Eijirou.”

            “I don’t _care_ what your name is. I wanna know whether I should kill you or just kick your ass.”

            “What? I saved you!”

            “Whose side are you on?” Eijirou scratched the back of his thick neck.

            “I guess the earth kingdom.”

            “What do you mean, ‘I _guess_ ’?”

            “Well, what are you? You’re a fire bender but it looks like the fire nation doesn’t want anything to do with you.”

            “I’m on _my_ side, obviously. When I get better, you can count on me to fuck you up.”

            Eijirou cracked a grin. “That’s a funny thing to say to the person who saved your life.” The fucker wasn't even scared of him. It was like talking to the ice freak but different. This guy wasn't a kid and he was smiley but definitely ripped enough to bust skulls. Katsuki was too mad to be scared.

            “I didn't _ask_ you to save me. I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone.” Katsuki started a fit of coughing then. Fuck, it even hurt to breathe.

            “You want some water?”

            “Fuck off.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your patience as I take my time with this fic. I'm not in the best of health so I need lots of rest but I'm enjoying reading all the sweet comments and am excited to write more and more!

**Author's Note:**

> Tags and Archive warnings will be updated with this fic but the rating won't go over PG-13. I will be posting side fics to explore more ~mature~ content so at least there's some wank material to motivate your reading this. haha...
> 
> I'm not too picky about ships either so feel free to request any pairing you like in this AU and I'll try to make it happen either in the main story or in side fics.
> 
> I am always a slut for comments. Just so you know. Scientifically, comments and kudos convert directly into new chapters. My blushing is the catalyst in this dumb chemistry metaphor.


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